Welcome, 77 artists, 40 different points of Attica welcomes you by singing Erotokritos an epic romance written at 1713 by Vitsentzos Kornaros

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Law enforcement in GREECE and France arrested criminal mastermind Lasha Shushanishvili as well as 40 other members of his criminal group and family on 16-17 April. The operation dubbed 'Caucasue-Normandie' was conducted in the two countries simultaneously. Special operation in GREECE.

GREECE and its creditors appear to be one step closer to reaching a final agreement on the restructuring of the country's huge debt pile, according to Eurogroup President Mario Centeno. Centeno told CNBC on Thursday that although there are still a "few issues" regarding GREECE'S public debt, European ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The euro zone and International Monetary Fund are discussing options for future debt relief for Greece at meetings this week in Washington, but are not considering any extensions of the Greek bailout, top euro zone officials said on ...

There are traces of Greece everywhere in Taverna, a new restaurant opening Monday at 800 Emerson St. in downtown Palo Alto. Framed black-and-white photographs of statues and busts, taken by the owners' friend at the archaeological Acropolis Museum in ...

Greek court released one out of eight fugitive Gulenist Terror Group (FETO)-linked pro-coup soldiers under judicial control, reports said Thursday. The fugitive soldier was identified as Suleyman Ozkaynakci, who had previously been granted asylum. Reports said that GREECE'S highest court has imposed ...

GREECE's highest administrative court, the Council of State, ordered the government to end its policy of trapping asylum seekers on its islands and refusing to move them to safer conditions on the mainland. This ruling, handed down on Tuesday, means new asylum seekers and migrants who arrive by ...

The study showed that GREECE has over the years of the crisis been deprived of investments worth tens of billions of euros: The gross fixed capital formation rate dropped to 14.7 percent of GDP in the 2008-16 period from an average of 21.3 percent in 1996-2007. In 2016 it amounted to just 11.7 percent, ...

The European Union has no plans to extend Greece's financing program beyond the planned August end date, EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Thursday. "It is out of the question. Our common goal is to conclude this joint program in time ...

Athens, Greece - Elation has turned to anger for refugees on Greece's eastern Aegean islands, following a court ruling that prolongs their confinement to those islands, but allows new arrivals to leave immediately. Greek authorities were reportedly already ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Euro zone officials are not discussing any extensions of the Greek bailout, the chairman of euro zone finance ministers Mario Centeno said on Thursday, adding Athens would be subject to the standard monitoring of all former bailout ...

In his letter, Armstrong said he made the decision to halt all GREEK life after learning of a second racially insensitive GREEK-related incident on April 14. In a photo that was taken six weeks ago, three Sigma Nu brothers are dressed like Hispanic gangsters. A caption read: "When you get [t]he holmes to ...

Greece's Council of State has made what could be a landmark decision by ruling that new refugee and migrant arrivals in the country will be able to move around the country freely. They are no longer restricted them to the islands of the eastern Aegean upon arrival from neighboring Turkey.

GREECE'S Asylum Service, which operates under the Migration Ministry, was assigned a new chief on Thursday. Markos Karavias, an assistant professor of international law specializing in immigration at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, is formally taking over the post during a particularly ...

The Panhellenic Seamen's Federation (PNO) on Thursday decided not to extend their mobilisations following two days of strike action. Consequently, all ships will carry out their scheduled routes after the end of the 24-hour strike that ends at 06:00 on Friday. RELATED TOPICS: GREECE, Greek tourism ...

Any prospect of a slackening of border rules could act as an incentive for refugees - especially Syrians fleeing recent attacks by government forces - to head for GREECE with the aim of reaching northern Europe. Stopping migrants making the short crossing from Turkey is a key part of EU policy aimed at ...

The powerful workers union GENOP-PEH at Greece’s Public Power Corporation (PPC) have announced to launch rolling 48-hour strikes that will start as of 00:01 Monday, April 23rd 2018. The union will launch also a 3-hour work stoppage on Friday, Apr 20, and a protest outside the PPC headquarters in downtown Athens. The work stoppage will … The post Power workers union to launch rolling 48h strikes opposing PPC privatization, lignite plants sale appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

[Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student, Emma Gonzalez, center, stands next to Naomi Wadler, 11, of Alexandria, VA, right, near the conclusion of March for Our Lives on Saturday March 24, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Photo: Matt McClain / The Washington Post via Getty Images)]Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student, Emma Gonzalez, center, stands next to Naomi Wadler, 11, of Alexandria, Virginia, right, near the conclusion of March for Our Lives on Saturday March 24, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Photo: Matt McClain / The Washington Post via Getty Images) With your support, we can publish more stories like this one. Click here to make a donation towards independent media now! During the first week of May 1963, more than 800 African-American students walked out of their classrooms and into the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, to call for an end to segregation. Despite frequent arrests and having dogs and high-pressure firehoses turned on them, they kept marching. Their determination and ceaseless bravery -- later called the Children's Crusade -- was captured in photographs and newspaper articles across the country. Through acts of peaceful and defiant civil disobedience, these students swayed public opinion in support of the civil rights movement. Fast forward to March 24, 2018. Naomi Wadler, a fifth grader, is standing at a podium in front of hundreds of thousands of protesters at the March for Our Lives in Washington, DC. Young as she was, Wadler, who organized a walkout at her elementary school to honor the 17 victims of the Parkland massacre, delivered a searing and heartfelt speech about the countless gun-related deaths of African-American women in America. Her steely resolve and the power of her message brought me to tears. I wondered: Is this what it will take? Will a new generation of fearless student-leaders be the agents of change that America so desperately needs? As a teacher, it took me a while to begin to see just what my students truly had in them. During my first two years of high school teaching, I'm not sure I loved or even liked my teenage students. If someone asked me about my job, I knew the right things to say -- working with teenagers was challenging yet inspiring -- but I didn't believe the lip service I was paying the profession. Much of my initial experience in the classroom was emotionally draining, engaged as I was in power struggles with those students, trying to assert my influence and control over them. It seemed so clear to me then. I was their teacher; they were my students. So I set out to establish a dynamic of one-way respect. I would provide information; they would listen and absorb it. This top-down approach was the model I'd observed and experienced my entire life. Adults talk, kids listen. So it couldn't have been more unsettling to me when certain of those students -- by sheer force of spirit, will, or intelligence -- objected. They caused friction in my classroom and so I saw them as impediments to my work. When they protested by arguing with me or "talking back," I bristled and dug my heels in deeper. I resented them. They posed a continual threat to my ego and my position as the unassailable owner of the classroom stage. Still, I knew something was wrong. In the quiet hours of the early morning I'd often wake up and feel a discomfort I can't describe. I'd run through exchanges from the previous day that left me wondering if I was doing more harm than good in that classroom. Yes, I continued to assert my right to the ownership of knowledge, but was I actually teaching anyone anything? I was -- I could feel it -- actively disregarding the emotional and intellectual capacities of my students, unwilling to see them as informed, competent, and worthy of being heard. I was, I realized, becoming the very kind of person I hated when I was in high school: the adult who demanded respect but gave none in return. The best decision I ever made in a classroom was to start listening to my students. As I slowly shifted the power structure in that room, my thinking about the way we look at youth and how we treat adolescents began to change, too. We ask teenagers to act like adults, but when they do, the response is often surprise followed by derision. So it came as no real shock to me that, as soon as the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, started to talk back to the "adults in the room" -- the pundits, commentators, politicians, the National Rifle Association, members of other special interest groups, and even the president -- they were met, at least in certain quarters, with remarkable disdain. The collective cry from their opponents went something like this: there is no way a bunch of snot-nosed, lazy, know-nothing teenagers have the right to challenge the status quo. After all, what do they know, even if they did survive a massacre? Why would watching their friends and teachers die in the classrooms and hallways of their school give them any special knowledge or the right to speak out? This nose-scrunching, finger-waving contempt for all things adolescent is a time-honored tradition. There's even a name for it: ephebiphobia, or fear of youth. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato was quoted as saying: "What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?" And in some ways, Plato was right: the old should be fearful of the young. You see, the teenagers who marched after Parkland don't necessarily hate the world; they just hate the particular world we've built for them. They've watched as the rules of the status quo have been laid out for them, a status quo that seems to become grimmer, more restrictive, and more ludicrous by the week. Fight for an end to police violence against unarmed black civilians and you're a terrorist. Kneel during the National Anthem and you're un-American. Walk out of your school to force people to confront gun violence and you're not grateful for your education. In short, whatever the problems in our world and theirs, there is no correct way to protest them and no way to be heard. Not surprisingly, then, they've proceeded in the only way they know how: by forging new paths and ignoring what they've been told is immutable and impossible. A WORLD OF DIGITAL NATIVES In doing so, those students have a distinct advantage over their elders. Adolescents understand the optics of the future in a way that most of the rest of us don't. They've spent countless hours making YouTube and Snapchat videos and vlogging about their lives. They're digital natives with the astonishing confidence to navigate the gauntlet of talking heads, corporate news media sites, politicians, commentators, tweeting presidents, and anonymous trolls. They not only do it with remarkable conviction, but it seems to come naturally to them. They've been raised not only to believe in themselves, but also to have faith that there's an audience online for those beliefs. No wonder Rush Limbaugh has taken to calling David Hogg, one of the most prominent of the Parkland student protesters, "Camera Hogg." No wonder many on the right have accused students like him of being "paid actors." Of course, Hogg isn't acting; he's simply a kid who has made practice perfect. According to a 2017 American Time Use Study by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, American teenagers spend around 4.5 hours per day online, though that number may actually be low. In 2015, Common Sense Media conducted a study that found "American teenagers (13- to 18-year-olds) average about nine hours (8:56) of entertainment media use, excluding time spent at school or for homework." Two divergent paths emerge when considering such statistics. Follow one and the research supports the conclusion that excessive screen time has deleterious effects on the mental health and wellbeing of teenagers. Follow the other and you find those same teenagers so finely attuned and well adapted to the landscape of social media that they've become virtual masters of the craft. Seventeen-year-old student activist David Hogg displayed exactly this mastery when he responded recently to Laura Ingraham of Fox News. She had attempted to publicly humiliate him by tweeting condescendingly about how he had been rejected by four California colleges. Hogg proved himself so much savvier than his famous foe when, instead of responding to Ingraham's mudslinging, he promptly tweeted for a boycott of her show's advertisers. More than a dozen of them quickly jumped ship, which was devastating for her. When she issued an anemic mea culpa, he responded on CNN by saying, "The apology... was kind of expected, especially after so many of her advertisers dropped out." In his measured appraisal of the situation lay a striking grasp of the established order. "I'm glad to see corporate America standing with me and the other students of Parkland and everybody else," he said, "because when we work together we can accomplish anything." That exchange, a real-time adults vs. kids tweet war, had me riveted. The immediacy and efficacy of Hogg's actions seemed to shatter the well-established dynamics between old and young. Hogg not only showcased his understanding of the way things work in America as so much craftier than Ingraham's -- always go for the money -- but also utilized the most powerful tool at his disposal: a single well-aimed tweet meant to upend a seemingly bulletproof target. In doing so, he demonstrated that young people are now capable of speaking far more resonantly than their parents or grandparents could possibly have imagined. The question, of course, remains: Will the rest of us listen to them? ASKING THE BIG QUESTIONS AT A YOUNG AGE When focused through collective grief, anger, and urgency, the energy and passion that defines youth can be a powerful stimulus for change. The inherent ridiculousness of the argument against youth-led movements -- that students have no platform on which to stand -- pointedly overlooks the role of youth as catalysts for social transformation. From the Children's Crusade of the civil rights moment to the student protests of the Vietnam War, adolescents (and sometimes even children) have regularly been on the front lines of the fight for social change. The argument against listening to children is often made by those who forget what it's like to be young. The daily lives of adolescents are, after all, deeply involved in thinking, assessing, analyzing, and evaluating. Nine months out of the year, whether they like it or not, they are actively engaged in education. By the time they graduate from high school -- assuming they've attended for an average of 6.5 hours per day, 172 days per year -- 18-year-olds in Oregon where I teach have spent somewhere around 14,690 hours in the classroom. It should come as no surprise then that, after so many years of being taught how to give speeches, make arguments in papers, support claims with evidence, and study the past, many teenagers are remarkably articulate and well-positioned to grasp the nature of the world they are about to enter. Whether they fully know it or not, they're regularly being forced to ask the "big" questions about a distinctly messy world and beginning to form their own life philosophies. Yes, just as I felt in my first two years as a teacher, teenagers can be maddeningly self-absorbed. But (as must be increasingly obvious, post-Parkland) those on the threshold of adulthood can also be astute observers of the world around them -- sometimes strikingly more so than the adults who are supposed to provide them with so much wisdom. They're deeply passionate about the things they love and rightfully skeptical of the world they will inherit. Asking them to accept the depressing realities of the society we're bequeathing to them without expecting them to respond, let alone protest, is tantamount to teaching without listening. My students know that the loan debt for their college-age equivalents already stands at $1.3 trillion and is only likely to get worse. It's a subject that comes up in class all the time. So most of them already grasp their fate in our world as it is. They ask me how they're supposed to pay for college without incurring lifelong, crippling debt, and I can't give them a reasonable answer. But of course they don't really expect me to. They've been told that the richest 20% of Americans hold 84% of the nation's wealth while the bottom 40% of Americans have less than 1%. They can see those vast wealth disparities for themselves in their lives, in their classrooms. They know that this country is over-weaponized and that neither "hunting" nor the "Second Amendment" can account for it. They've grappled with the terrifying reality that they could be gunned down in their own school, at the movies, at a concert, or even outside their homes. When we practice active-shooter drills in the classroom, all those fears are only confirmed. They see that adults can't protect them and draw the necessary conclusions. So when they disrespect institutions, rules, beliefs, and traditions that look like relics from a past that has wantonly jeopardized their future, and when they disrespect the adults who seem to uphold those traditions, shouldn't we take notice and listen? Here's one thing that shouldn't surprise anyone. Teachers, exposed daily to these very teens, have been among the first to collectively follow them out of the classrooms and into the streets. The teacher strikes and walkouts in Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia indicate that support for grassroots movements is building and that adults are, in their own ways, beginning to stand with and support the young. Those teachers, often in the streets without the support and assistance of their unions (when they even have them), have opted instead to harness the energy and momentum behind the current youth-led activism and the tools available to them on social media to make their demands heard. Noah Karvelis, a new teacher in Arizona, caught the essence of the present situation when he described his colleagues as being, "primed for activism by their anger over the election of President Trump, his appointment of Betsy DeVos as education secretary, and even their own students' participation in anti-gun protests after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida." Ultimately, the teachers are demanding changes that will benefit not just them but their students. Still, their detractors have opted to respond to their strikes and walkouts by shaming the teachers and reducing their calls for funding and support to so many petty complaints. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin even compared striking teachers in her state to a teenager who "wants a better car." In doing so, she highlighted one thing: the greatest insult you can hurl at teachers these days is to compare them to their students. Teenagers can indeed be infuriating. They can be rude, naïve, and short sighted, but so can adults. Dismissing adolescents for the fact of their youth and denying them the right to be heard just makes the rest of us look ever more like the enemy. All I can say in response is that this teacher is standing firmly with her students and the hundreds of thousands of others who are collectively demanding a voice.

Only a matter of weeks before the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest is set to take place, and competing artists from across the continent are finalising their plans for the Lisbon-hosted event next month. With some artists working on music to be released in the ...

While immersing herself in The Society of Friends of GREEK Music, she polished her voice and met lifelong friend and collaborator Mikis Theodorakis at the age of only 16. Known for her full and rich contralto tone, along with Theodorakis's music, the sounds of peace influenced an entire generation.

A GREEK shipowner has hit out at Iraqi authorities who continue to hold a bulker involved in a deadly collision last year. Twenty-one people onboard a diving support vessel died when it capsized after a collision with the 48,200-dwt Royal Arsenal (built 1999) at Umm Qasr in August 2017. Iraqi Transport ...

Rights groups on Thursday pressed the Greek government to comply with a court ruling to allow migrants to move freely within Greece instead of being confined to six Aegean islands. The Greek section of Amnesty International and local group SolidarityNow ...

Earlier this week, Cal Poly State University’s president announced that he was suspending all of Greek life, after the recent emergence of a photo of a student in blackface at a Lambda Chi Alpha party. Nearly two months prior, there was a racial ...

JOURNALIST: We welcome the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Kotzias. JOURNALIST: Good morning, Minister. N. KOTZIAS: Good morning. JOURNALIST: We thank you very much for being with us in these difficult times. N. KOTZIAS: Good morning to you. Good morning to our listeners. JOURNALIST: The state of affairs is difficult, Mr. Minister. Every day there is more bad news, mainly from Turkey. Where will this end? N. KOTZIAS: I think we have to be more composed and assess things carefully, because I often explain to my interlocutors that, if I were Erdogan and saw how Greece is reacting, as a society as a whole and politically, to Turkey’s provocations, I would be pleased. Because every provocation causes a commotion that is many times greater than the significance of the provocation. I don’t want play down the provocations, but I want to say that the country needs composure, and this composure has to be shown by the political leadership, including the opposition parties. In difficult times there has to be sober and composed thinking. JOURNALIST: “Imia is Turkish territory,” says an announcement from the ... N. KOTZIAS: They have been saying this since 1996. And I remind you that they first said this in 1993. We are issuing a response. We made two announcements today, which we prepared late last night. The first has already been posted on the Foreign Ministry media. It is our assessment of the Commission’s recommendation. And shortly we will post a shorter announcement concerning Turkey’s conduct. In our assessment, Turkey, rather than learning and studying what the European Commission says, especially regarding respect for the European acquis and international law, is once again violating these. There are the older decisions of international law, there is the Italian-Turkish agreement itself, there is the 1947 Treaty of Paris. It is clear in three international texts that Imia belongs to Greece, and it would be good for Turkey to realise that, at least in the Aegean, it needs to behave, and would benefit from behaving, according to international law. And as I often say, not meaning any insult to Syria and Iraq, Greece is a much more organized country, in all fields and in all sectors, than Syria and Iraq, who found themselves in civil wars, with Turkey taking this opportunity to invade. JOURNALIST: Yes, but one could say that the Erdogan government is violating the Treaty of Lausanne in Syria and Iraq. N. KOTZIAS: That is what I said on Monday, when I was at the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg and there was a discussion regarding Syria. I stressed two things that some of our partners do not take much into account. The first is that Assad, If and when he uses chemical weapons – and it appears that he did – isn’t just perpetrating an inhuman act, which we certainly have to underscore, but is also breaking the rules of warfare. And the rules of warfare have been shaped over the past 4,000 years, in three main regions of the world: in Greece, China and India. In other words, there are some rules even in war. And in fact this was expressed from 1400 to 1600 in a broad debate, particularly in Spain and Holland, when the first inklings of the internal law of war were being formed. We have what is at first glance absurd: that there is law regarding how you must conduct war. Assad has violated the law of war.And next door we have Turkey, which they forgot about a little, and I reminded them that Turkey is also violating the international rules and international law – in this case, the Treaty of Lausanne. What Turkey is doing in Afrin is reminiscent of what it did in the 1930s, when, via a pseudo referendum, it seized the area of Alexandretta. And I want to remind you that the Turks were a minority in the Alexandretta region. The largest portion of the population, if I remember correctly, were the 29,500 Armenians, and there was a group of 11,500 Greeks. When the Syrian crisis started, I accused Turkey of doing in Syria what it had done in Alexandretta, and I remember Çavuşoğlu called me and said: “What’s this now? What are you comparing? We have no such intentions.” And I said, “Mevlüt, we’ll see. The war is still ahead, and the way you are conducting it, my assessment is that you would like to seize territory near Alexandretta,” Afrin, as proved to be the case, in Syria. We have violations of international law by all the sides in Syria. JOURNALIST: Let’s go to the events of the past few days. What is your conclusion from the games with flags on the islets? N. KOTZIAS: My opinion, as the head of Greek diplomacy, is that foreign policy must be exercised first and foremost by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I say this to everyone. Second, foreign policy must be made by the country’s institutions. And third, if someone wants to take an initiative in foreign policy, he would do well to consider the consequences. Because one of the things you have to know in foreign policy is that you don’t just open a door and whatever happens, happens. You have to open a door and know that you will go in, that you will close it behind you; you have to know what you are going to do and where it will lead. JOURNALIST: The response is, yes, but shouldn’t we raise a flag on Greek territory? N. KOTZIAS: One should certainly raise a flag. And the Greek flag can fly anywhere. But you also have to think about how and when you will defend this action you take. As far as I know, the Greek flags weren’t raised there, or weren’t taken down, to put it more accurately. As I always say, with every action that has to do with foreign policy, you also have to think about what will follow. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be done, but it can’t be done like that. JOURNALIST: You say that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must exercise diplomacy, and you say this to everyone. When you say ‘everyone’, do you mean the government and the opposition and the country’s institutions? N. KOTZIAS: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the government, the Prime Minister of the country in particular are responsible for foreign policy and its coordination. I don’t think uncoordinated foreign policy is good, or people making foreign policy from other positions, perhaps outside the institutional system, because this makes things more difficult for the country or undermines the country’s policy. JOURNALIST: Mr. Koutsoumbas, yesterday and, in more detail, today considers a ‘heated incident’ in the Aegean inevitable. Do you agree with that assessment? N. KOTZIAS: Diplomacy’s job is to avert such developments. JOURNALIST: Your goal is to avert it. N. KOTZIAS: It mustn’t happen. But our problem isn’t the ‘heated incident’ that might happen at some point. The main problem is our not allowing accidents to happen in the region because of the constant tensions we have with Turkey. And I want to tell you something to make myself clear. I tuned into ERT this morning, the state television station, and I have to say that the warlike climate I saw this morning – at 06:00 – this atmosphere that the Aegean smells of gunpowder, that we are heading for war, that war is coming, etc., is not the atmosphere of a composed society. It is an atmosphere that will make Erdogan smile. In other words, that through one or two minor moves he has brought such turmoil to us. That is why I said that we all have to show composure, and this doesn’t concern only politicians. It also concerns journalists, if I may say so. This competition over who will smell the most gunpowder, etc., doesn’t help the atmosphere in the country. JOURNALIST: Since we’re on the subject of news, Minister, there is a great deal of mystery surrounding various issues. What happened in Ro, when the tracer rounds were fired, how was the Greek squadron leader lost? N. KOTZIAS: If someone is suggesting that what is being said publicly and officially is not true, he is certainly right in saying it’s a mystery. But if we say that the information given out is accurate, then there is no mystery. JOURNALIST: What happened in Ro? A night-flight without lights?Just that?For what reason? N. KOTZIAS: What I know happened in Ro is that shots were fired at a sound, and not at a visible object. They said they heard a sound. They didn’t say they saw anything. JOURNALIST: It had to be something. N. KOTZIAS: It didn’t have its lights on. JOURNALIST: Do you believe Turkey really has aspirations in the Aegean as a whole? N. KOTZIAS: I think Turkey has two characteristics. One is that it is a very restless power. That many, many internal contradictions contribute to this restlessness. It has development and social contradictions. In some places it has feudal structures, and in other places modern capitalist structures. It has national contradictions. The Kurdish problem, with 15 or 16 million Kurds. It has religious tensions, especially with the Alawite Turks and Kurds. It has every kind of contradiction. Added to these is a restlessness among its leadership, which is a clash, as I always describe it, between fear and worry, on the one hand, and the arrogant belief that they can do anything. These are not good guides. Turkey’s second characteristic, as I always say, is revisionism. In other words, that it has the sense that it can gain enough power to give it the ‘right’ to ask for a change in the realities arising from international conventions, agreements, international law as a whole. In this case, the Treaty of Lausanne.Third, I believe that certain aspects of the problem have changed, because energy resources have been found in the region, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean, and Turkey is exerting pressure in various ways in order to find a way to participate in the exploitation and transportation of these energy resources. JOURNALIST: Do you think this was Mr. Erdogan’s overall strategy, or does he have a ... N. KOTZIAS: Which? JOURNALIST: This Turkish strategy, as you described it. Or will the tensions be lowered after the Turkish presidential elections? N. KOTZIAS: I think the attempted coup played a major role in Turkey, strengthening this sense and this arrogance, that “we won.” And the insecurity and fear that we can walk out onto the corner and ‘someone will shoot us’. The fact that elections are coming up also plays some role. And it appears they will be holding elections earlier than they were scheduled for. These two elements further boost the tension, but the revisionism and this orientation are strengthened by the need for them to participate in the energy ‘game’. JOURNALIST: There is great concern over what will happen when the 8 Turkish military personnel who have requested asylum in Greece are released. A few days ago, here, the Justice Minister, Mr. Kontonis, said mid-May. Are you concerned? N. KOTZIAS: The Greek state has to provide for everyone’s security. JOURNALIST: And do you have an assessment regarding the two Greek soldiers, Mr. Minister? N. KOTZIAS: You may have noticed, Mr. Skouris, that I have never expressed an assessment. From the first night, I said that this is an issue that I feel falls within another type of Turkish strategy from the past. I was alone in saying this at the time. JOURNALIST: That’s true, but do you think it was a substantial rather than simple or chance move? N. KOTZIAS: I don’t know whether it happened by chance. What I do know is that – and I will say this again – in Ankara, Erdogan and his circle see how we are reacting, and we are right in reacting this way, passionately demanding the release of our two soldiers. But Turkey has another outlook on the lives of people and soldiers, because during the time the two Greek officers have been detained, Turkey has lost five or six hundred soldiers and officers without shedding a tear. At this point we have two problems with Turkey. First, a different outlook on civil liberties and especially human life, and second, a sense that, ‘look at how upset the Greeks are just because they detained two officers’. In other words – and I insist on this point – Ankara reads events differently from us. JOURNALIST: There is an issue, I understand that you are satisfied with the European Union’s stance on the Aegean issue. Isn’t that right? N. KOTZIAS: I don’t think it is the European Union’s stance that pleases us. We are pleased at the work we have done which led the European Union adopt this stance. Our work has paid off. It isn’t that the European Union is suddenly, for the first time, addressing Turkey so sternly. There are the international agreements, the Europeans’ relations with Turkey overall, and there is the work we have done. JOURNALIST: But why haven’t you had corresponding results on the NATO issue? For example, we saw what Mr. Stoltenberg said regarding the Aegean as provocative. And a lot of people are asking why you didn’t protest? Why didn’t you issue an announcement? N. KOTZIAS: What Mr. Stoltenberg said publicly is not what he said privately to the Turks. And I am very much interested in the latter. JOURNALIST: Did Mr. Putin say something too? Because we had the Prime Minister’s telephone conversation with him. Do you have any news, I mean, on Russia’s stance? N. KOTZIAS: I think Russia is interested in Syria, but it is also very interested in breaking Turkey away from the ‘western world’. We’ve seen this policy from Russia before. I remind you that in the 1920s, going back 95 years, the Soviet Union followed the same policy. It tried to break Kemal Ataturk off from the West. That is why I always say to Turkey, regarding the European Union and other western institutions, that they themselves have to decide whether or not they want to belong to the West, and not talk about whether Austria or some other country is angry with them. JOURNALIST: What is your assessment regarding the fate of the two Greek officers who have been detained in Turkish prisons for 50 days now? N. KOTZIAS: As I said before, we are taking all necessary action to see them released, but it doesn’t depend us alone. It depends on whether or not Turkey acts rationally. JOURNALIST: Minister, a lot of people are wondering whether Greece might need a change in strategy. To date, since the beginning of the 1990s, our policy has said that Turkey has a European perspective. We as a country support this perspective, and this is the framework within which we place our rights in the Aegean, our demands. Now, Europe doesn’t seem to want Ankara, Ankara doesn’t seem to want to join Europe. Do we perhaps need a different strategy? N. KOTZIAS: Europe doesn’t want Turkey – the European Union doesn’t want Turkey – in the same way it once did. This doesn’t mean that the Europeans don’t want to have strong ties and economic relations with Turkey. Moreover, Turkey isn’t under the same pressure to join the European Union, but it is under great pressure to renew its economic relations and the Turkey-EU customs union, which is business matter worth over €60 billion to the Turks. So there is still leverage, there are still interests. Second, no one who is talking about a new strategy has said even a single word describing a proposal for a new strategy. In other words, they are mostly calling into question a policy of their own from the past. And third, we have many elements of a new foreign policy that they apparently aren’t in a position to acknowledge, especially the emphasis we are putting on the Eastern Mediterranean, where there is the Kastelorizo-Cyprus line and the energy resources. That is the centre of our policy, and we also have the trilateral cooperation schemes. Next month we will have meetings with Israel, with Armenia, and with the Palestinians, here in Athens. And there is also the very serious work we are doing in Rhodes for the shaping of a new security and stability system in the Eastern Mediterranean, which began with 11 countries and now stands at 23. All of the Arab countries and the European countries of Southeast Europe come, and for the first time the Palestinians will be coming too. And we are shaping a positive agenda to stabilize the region, which we consider to be insecure, because of the energy resources, the Eastern Mediterranean. JOURNALIST: For instance, some people say: We need to increase defence spending. We need resolve, because if something happens in the Aegean, Europe won’t come to our aid. N. KOTZIAS: But increased defence spending isn’t a strategy. JOURNALIST: Yes, right. N. KOTZIAS: And second, we don’t have the same resources as Turkey. We have a GDP of €178 billion. Turkey’s GDP is €1.428trillion. The ratio is 1 to 8. So we don’t just want new spending for defence. We want any spending on defence to be smart and to serve our defensive goals. In other words, we want defensive armaments, because we have no intention of invading a third country. Turkey is buying armaments for invading third countries. JOURNALIST: Minister, the opposition often criticises you – the government, I mean – for not keeping them well enough informed. N. KOTZIAS: Right. They complained two days after I had briefed them. Let me tell you something: Regarding fYROM, in the space of two months we have briefed Parliament, the Prime Minister briefed Mr. Mitsotakis, I briefed the representatives of Mr. Mitsotakis, and we have twice given them a file on this country. Five briefings in two months. They never briefed anyone. I see this as impertinence. They never briefed anyone, for example, on fYROM, because they didn’t use our own diplomats from the Ministry, as we do. They used National Intelligence Service personnel, if you remember. Intelligence personnel carried out the negotiations with fYROM under New Democracy, regarding whom no one knew, first, why they were doing it and, second, where they were from. But I want to say something else: Unfortunately, there are some political parties that, no matter what you brief them on, feel the need to let the information leak to the press and so on. JOURNALIST: Do you mean Mr. Leventis? Or others as well? N. KOTZIAS: I don't mean anyone. I’m stating the reality of the situation. You are journalists. You can find this out easily. I go to Parliament and give a briefing. And during the briefing, what I say appears in the press. I brief the political parties, and they let what I tell them leak to the press. And I’m talking about articles, not just what they say directly; that’s the least of it. It is what they leak in an attempt to curry favour with journalists, and this enables the other side to know what we are thinking, how we are prioritizing our goals and their content. This isn’t good. Rather than complaining that they haven’t been briefed – when in fact they have – they would do well to be responsible with the information they are given. And can I tell you something else? It’s risible: Dimitrov tells me that he briefed an opposition politician who, at the end of the briefing, said, “But don’t tell anyone you briefed me today.” A party representative said exactly the same thing to me. One evening when I briefed him for two hours, he said, “Yes, but you won’t come out tomorrow and say you briefed me – don’t consider this a briefing.” This is just ridiculous. JOURNALIST: What is happening with the proposal Potami made to the Prime Minister for establishing a National Security Council? N. KOTZIAS: We have met with the Potami representative, we have agreed on how this should be structured and developed, and it has now been undertaken by professors of international law, and they are elaborating it based on the guidelines they were given. JOURNALIST: So you will set up a National Security Council. N. KOTZIAS: We will. The National Security Council is an advisory Council to the Prime Minister. It is something we will prepare, but it is the responsibility of the Prime Minister, not of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. JOURNALIST: And will former prime ministers sit on the Council? N. KOTZIAS: Look, you can see the National Security Council in two ways. The first way is as an expanded National Council on Foreign Policy that, rather than being on the level of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and his counterparts in the political parties, is on the level of Prime Ministers and former Prime Ministers. And there is a second way, which is what most National Security Councils have evolved into. And this is a system in which the major and common problems the country has are considered jointly, with the participation of scientists, diplomats, and politicians from the various political parties. I think we are leaning more towards the second. JOURNALIST: Right. Let’s take a commercial break and come back. BreakJOURNALIST: We get the sense, Minister, that the Skopje issue has come to a standstill recently. N. KOTZIAS: Now, how is it that it has come to standstill already? JOURNALIST: When Mr. Zaev is talking about a double name and says he will not be meeting with Mr. Τsipras any time soon … N. KOTZIAS: As if he had previously given in on the name, and now it has come to a standstill... JOURNALIST: You tell us. Because you made a very stern statement as well. N. KOTZIAS: Look, as I have also told you about the Turkish issues and Greece, I think that we must all learn -all of us, myself included- to be more responsible, more level-headed, and more serious. Some diplomatic issues cannot be solved with declarations, nor can you come out in interviews and say things that are part of the negotiations. Let’s say now that politician X comes out and says, “I refuse to do Y.” This results in two things: if he does this, he will be left exposed. If he does not do this, it will also be due to the fact that he has contributed to the failure of the situation to change. I will give you a more concrete example: The Government does not have a ruling majority on the name issue. JOURNALIST: The Greek Government, you mean? N. KOTZIAS: Yes, the Greek Government. But I am tackling this issue, and the Prime Minister is tackling it even better. The Government is tackling it, and conditions of a majority are starting to take shape. JOURNALIST: In other words, you have written off Mr. Kammenos and the ANEL party. They have made public statements, moreover. N. KOTZIAS: I am not writing anybody off. I am simply respecting the stances they themselves have taken. Mr. Zaev, who does have a majority in his own Parliament, is saying, “I am not in a position to get this passed by Parliament.” JOURNALIST: He has a majority? N. KOTZIAS: He has 61 seats, 59 + 2 Albanians who do not participate in his Government, from the small Albanian party. Mr. Zaev needs a qualified majority for the Constitution. He needs to fight hard to attain it. If he says, “Since I don’t have a qualified majority, I won’t do it,” he will never fight for it, and we are never going to come to any substantial agreement. We aren't going to reach an agreement. And let me tell you something else. It’s nice that when we began negotiations with Nikola Dimitrov - we essentially began in January, two or three months before we had done the preliminary work, in other words how we were going to go about the negotiations, etc. - everyone was saying, “We are doing this because they are pressuring us to join NATO in June,” and therefore we, the Government, did not open this up, as we say, which I continue to uphold and say, because it was our national duty to solve problems with fYROM and Albania which were left to us unresolved by previous parties and Governments, for decades and much longer, but they were saying to us that someone had whispered in our ear, you had better behave because, in June, they must join. It is very obvious that fYROM is not going to get into NATO in June. JOURNALIST: You think they missed the chance? N. KOTZIAS: Of course they have. Because I will tell you this: Now instead of saying, “We were wrong, and Tsipras and Kotzias were right, who had been saying that we are doing this because we have assessed that it is for reasons of national interest,” they are saying, “But it stopped, it’s not happening or it isn’t going to happen.” Let me now tell you why they missed the chance. It is already April. An agreement must be approved in various ways. They want to hold a referendum. The referendum in our friendly country to the North requires more than two months. In other words, just the referendum will be held no earlier than June. And after the referendum, the agreement will have to go to Parliament, which will take half a month, or an entire month. And once it has gone to Parliament, Parliament will then need to continue making constitutional amendments. In order for us to have an agreement, we will need to have agreed to the constitutional amendments. So it will continue into the Fall. JOURNALIST: For that, there is no need for another Summit. They can also join without one, provided that the name issue is resolved. N. KOTZIAS: At NATO, decisions are made even by the Permanent Representatives, in other words by the branch of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is why sometimes, when I hear New Democracy saying in Parliament, “But how is Mr. Kammenos going to go to NATO and negotiate and sign?” it surprises me that former Foreign Ministers also say this. Because NATO has two formats: it has the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then the Permanent Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and it also has the Ministries of Defence and the military officials. The Ministries of Defence and the military officials make the technical arrangements between the Member States, which pertain to the co-ordination of defence or various defence activities. Political choices are made by the Foreign Ministers. In other words, the political issues that have to do with fYROM go through either the Prime Minister, or the Minister of Foreign Affairs, or the Permanent Representatives, in other words our Ambassadors to NATO. JOURNALIST: So you are saying that even if Mr. Kammenos should vote against any agreement, should one come up, and even should he succeed, he can remain Minister of Defence, he can remain in the Government in other words. N. KOTZIAS: I have given the example of my friend Boris Johnson. As you know, Boris Johnson has often directly attacked Ms. May, and they belong to the same party in Britain, and nobody came out to say that Mr. Johnson has different views than Ms. May, and that he must leave. Because societies are pluralistic, they are democratic. JOURNALIST: Well, aren’t Governments always involved, however, in major issues. N. KOTZIAS: Governments always have, all the Governments in the world, majorities and minorities. Let me remind you that with regard to the issue of fYROM, New Democracy twice had publicly expressed minorities. One was Mr. Samaras, who ultimately decided to leave, he was not thrown out by Mr, Mitsotakis, and the second was the group of three, which included Mr. Dimas, Mr. Evert, and Mr. Kanellopoulos and, in the end, Mr. Mitsotakis feared them and did not promote changing of name of fYROM, wrongfully so in my opinion, because you have seen how it has festered to date. Therefore, the same party that was in power, and was not simply in power with great internal disagreement on this issue, but did not dare do it because it got scared, cannot criticise us, because we are showing responsibility and courage, for the country to be done with this problem, and indeed I think that if I were New Democracy, I would be happy that there are politicians like Mr. Tsipras and Mr. Kotzias, who do not think about political cost, but only think about national interest, who are solving a problem that others were unable to solve over the last 25 years, which has festered; which, if it continues to exist, will create problems for us. JOURNALIST: Why do you believe that Mr. Mitsotakis is taking that specific stance? N. KOTZIAS: He is coordinating the various groups within the Party. But whether he is succeeding or not, I don’t know. That’s his issue. JOURNALIST: You say that you are resolving an issue that previous politicians failed to resolve, which they created. But when, after so many months of negotiation, we hear Mr. Zaev saying that we will not change the name as regards domestic use … N. KOTZIAS: It really surprises me that three months of negotiations is considered an equal length of time to 25 years of problem creation.JOURNALIST: But expectations were created, that a different sort of momentum exists, that the international community is involved, that the Zaev Government is willing … N. KOTZIAS: I have never said that the international community is involved. On the contrary, I have publicly stated that this is a beneficial situation for the negotiations, because the Americans are not too concerned about the Western Balkans, and the Germans did not have a Government. JOURNALIST: And the fact that, in any case, there is a willing government in fYROM. N. KOTZIAS: I said that there is a government that has leeway to make these negotiations. As far as its determination, this shall be proven in the end. JOURNALIST: Without an erga omnes revision of its Constitution, can a solution exist? N. KOTZIAS: No. JOURNALIST: None. N. KOTZIAS: No. JOURNALIST: Categorically. N. KOTZIAS: Categorically. I will tell you two things, something political as well as an example. Let me begin with the example: people from fYROM are always saying to me “Look Nikos, we will make an agreement, and there will be documents for abroad which will bear the international name, and documents for domestic use only, and you shouldn’t care whether some Municipality writes “Republic of Macedonia.” I say to him, “Okay, I will bring you ten documents, and you tell me how this will work.” I produce the first document. What is the first document? The Constitution of fYROM. And I ask: “The new Constitution of fYROM, when you send it abroad in English, either to international organizations, or for negotiations, or at academic seminars on this country, this Constitution, how will it refer to the country? Will the name of the country be translated, or will it change to the international name?” He tells me “It will be translated, we cannot change it.” So we begin with the first document already, that it will be distributed abroad with the domestic name. What do I mean? That if there is no erga omnes, in other words to be used in all international and transnational affairs, international organizations, bilateral and internal affairs, we will have invested - this is what I am trying to explain to fYROM - in an argument and friction for the entire century to come. Because documents will be coming out abroad - for example, a university degree with the domestic name, we will be hunting them down for “disrupting or violating agreements,” they will say that “it happened by accident” and, if we have an argument today as to what name shall be used in international Organisations, there we will have a daily argument which will represent an impasse and will only serve to further exacerbate the conditions between the two states. I am telling them that we are doing it and I insist on erga omnes because we want an agreement that will be stable in the long term and that will solve problems instead of creating them. JOURNALIST: The name is one thing. Here, are we closer to "Gorna Macedonija"?N. KOTZIAS: It is out of the question for me to start publicly discussing which stage the negotiation process has reached. JOURNALIST: Are we close to a name? N. KOTZIAS: Mr. Nimetz has proposed five names. One has been rejected. This is a name which had been accepted by the Greek Governments … JOURNALIST: Macedonia dash (-) Skopje N. KOTZIAS: Not dash, parentheses (Skopje). This is very different from a dash. With the dash it is a name, parentheses are left out. And using only Macedonia domestically, within the country, for some of those who are wagging fingers at us today. The other four names, we have said that it is a matter for the country itself to decide as to what it would like. JOURNALIST: In other words, whichever one the Skopjans choose. N. KOTZIAS: As far as we are concerned, as long as it has a compound geographic qualifier, we have no problem. But this compound geographic qualifier must be for domestic use as well. JOURNALIST: There are seven points around which negotiations are revolving, if I remember correctly. It is clear that Greece cannot have it all, isn’t it? N. KOTZIAS: You can’t have it all in any negotiation that is not preceded by victory in a war. Because the other side won’t let you have it. It must be a compromise, where each side gets what it considers to be most important. JOURNALIST: Because there is an issue that was placed on the table by former Prime Minister Karamanlis - indeed, it was to me that he made the related statement - on the issue of nationality. That if the issue of nationality does not change, there can be no agreement. It may perhaps be more central than the name even. Do you agree with this assessment? N. KOTZIAS: I imagine he means identity. Because nationality, as Mr Zaev also stated, will appear in their passports, “nationals of the Republic of so and so”. Therefore, they will be nationals of the country whose name has been agreed upon. Identity is a matter of self-determination, Mr. Skouris. We must remember this, because we also must not violate international laws, should we believe this suits us somehow. JOURNALIST: Mr. Voutsis said that the Macedonia issue may be the occasion for restructuring the political scene in the country. Do you agree? Do you share this view? N. KOTZIAS: I will tell you the opinion I have as President of “Pratto”. Of an organization that participated in the ballots of SYRIZA, and I remain grateful for our excellent collaboration and communication. JOURNALIST: Which will continue? N. KOTZIAS: Of course. I see no reason for it not to continue. This is what I believe: we did not consider the government that would be formed in 2015 a Leftist Government. I have also written a book, if you recall, on the matter. We considered it to be a government of salvation. Because it was a government of salvation, collaboration could take place between left-wing forces and the populist right-wing forces.The Leftist Government could come once the problems which were the objective of the salvation Government had been solved. Why do I say this? Because, in my opinion, and according to my experience and everything I have read and studied in my lifetime, the nature of a Government is not determined by the forces that are involved in it, but by the types of problems it solves. Lenin even referred to the Bolshevik revolution of 1905 as bourgeois democratic, not because the nature of the Bolsheviks of ‘17 had changed, which was, as he said, socialist, but the tasks that it had to resolve, for the Tsar to leave, to establish a Parliament etc., those of a bourgeois democracy. JOURNALIST: Now I shall be compelled to ask you a question here. In other words, you believe that once the country has exited the Memorandum … N. KOTZIAS: The fact that you are compelled to ask a question does not mean that I am compelled to respond. JOURNALIST: No, that is completely fair. I would like to ask you, the Memorandum is coming to an end. According to the Prime Minister, a new memorandum agreement will not be concluded. The country is gaining certain levels of freedom. The divide returns to the forefront even more decidedly - as far as I am concerned, it was never gone- the divide between Right - Left. Thus, along with the present parliamentary term, the collaboration between SYRIZA - ANEL shall also expire. N. KOTZIAS: No, no. We are finishing with the Memorandum, and I think that we need to implement the policy for recovery of the poor working classes, rehabilitation of the country’s potential for growth, and the upgrading of these in the international community, which is always in the agreement and understanding between ANEL and Synaspismos-SYRIZA. JOURNALIST: In other words, this will remain even after this Parliament has gone. N. KOTZIAS: This will be decided later, by the majorities that take shape after this Parliament is gone. But as regards this one, I am clear. JOURNALIST: I wanted to ask you how you explain such a large participation in rallies and, at the same time in polls - I saw the last one conducted by PALMOS Analysis - 7 out of 10 Greeks are in favour of a mutually acceptable solution to the Macedonia. N. KOTZIAS: This poll, which I also saw yesterday, is something positive, and indicates that people are shifting towards a more realistic line. I think whomever of us you may ask: “Would you like for the country to the north of Greece to be named “the Central Republic of the Balkans” or “Macedonia…so and so,” one would prefer the former. The first is what I prefer, the second is the reality of what I can and must do. I think that developments also with Turkey, in recent weeks, have shown that now is the time to solve our problems with Albania and fYROM. JOURNALIST: Incidentally, where are we with Albania? They say that the negotiations have foundered. I see many reports. Is that the case? N. KOTZIAS: As to the reports saying they have foundered...let me tell you. A “problem” exists for Greek reporters: The fact that the Foreign Ministry does not leak information, that certain opposition parties who took documents and information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and leaked information do not have access. Because Ministry officials - the diplomats, the experts, and the lawyers - have risen to the challenge of the present situation. They know that we are implementing a very serious national strategy. They themselves participate in these negotiations and do not allow things to leak from those negotiations and discussions in such a manner as to undermine the negotiations.In the negotiations, I would say that we have remained on one last point. We can have a look at this. We have meetings coming up, as provided for in the Constitution of our friendly country, and an agreement that Mr. Meta made with its Government. They have a complicated internal procedure. I think by the end of May, the formalities will essentially be over, as well as the final pending issue. You know, these are problems that have existed for 70-80 years. When it comes up for debate in Parliament, you will be shocked at what you hear, and at the nonsense that took place on both sides. JOURNALIST: I hear that they are reviving the issue of the Cham Albanians, for example. N. KOTZIAS: Nobody in these negotiations is raising the issue of the Chams. We have not accepted for such an issue to be raised in these negotiations. As far as the properties, the only properties that exist are those that have to do with the state of war. Technically, according to one interpretation, we are still at war with Albania. As long as this state of war is not lifted with sufficient legality, the seized properties shall remain in the hands of the Greek State. These seized properties have to do with properties that came under the guarantee of the Greek State upon waging of war by Italy and Albania, which was then one united monarchy against Greece. In other words, these things are pre-war, they have nothing to do with the Chams, which are decisions of the Courts made after the war; and these decisions are final and irrevocable. JOURNALIST: Could you, I don’t know - an iconic figure of the Left, of the communist Left, later of the Left overall - could you be a member of a Government in which the Police defended the statue of Truman from being taken down? N. KOTZIAS: I don’t think the Police were protecting the statue of Truman, to keep it from coming down. The Police did not want a new diplomatic problem to be created where one isn’t necessary. JOURNALIST: I think you were clear. Shall we thank the Minister of Foreign Affairs? JOURNALIST: Let’s thank him. N. KOTZIAS: So you have to ponder over that issue? JOURNALIST: Have we got another question? Have we forgotten anything? N. KOTZIAS: Do I have to respond? Let me thank you. I don’t need to ponder over it. JOURNALIST: We thank you very much Mr. Minister, for your participation here, for the news you provided us with.

On Monday, April 16th, 2018, three Greek interns arrived at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. […] The post Greek Interns at Simon Fraser Univ. for “Rebooting the Greek Language” Program appeared first on The National Herald.

NEW YORK – “I wanted to become a traveler and an artist, but I didn’t want to carry all the weight of my equipment in […] The post Greek-American Artist Michael Papadakis “Paints” with the Sun appeared first on The National Herald.

At the same time, a large part of our work has to do with the arts and with promoting a meaningful dialogue between the British and GREEK art scenes. We want to introduce the GREEK public to distinguished British artists and to encourage synergies in areas like creative writing, visual arts, design, music ...

By Karolos Gadis former Greek Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Deputy-Ambassador in Ankara and Washington D.C. An Open Letter to NATO’s Secretary General from a Citizen within NATO Alliance… Honorable Secretary General, I would like first to recognize the exceptionally difficult and subtle character of your high tasks as […] The post An Open Letter to NATO’s Secretary General from a Citizen within NATO Alliance appeared first on Hellenic News of America.

Greece’s highest court on April 19 approved the release from custody of one of eight former Turkish soldiers who have applied for asylum in Greece after fleeing Turkey following a failed 2016 coup in the neighboring country.

Refugees and migrants who cross by boat from Turkey to Greece’s Aegean islands must be allowed to travel on to the mainland, a Greek court has ruled, raising concerns about a fresh wave of asylum seekers to Europe. The ruling comes two years after border ...

Jürgen Klopp has shown that you can improve a side while selling your best player – it is a victory for team functionality, philosophy and identity I have heard Jürgen Klopp cite inspirations as varied as heavy metal music and Rocky Balboa so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Liverpool manager was also familiar with Aristotle. After all, Klopp showed in January that his football philosophy is very much in line with the great Greek thinker who believed that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. Klopp shocked many in the football world when almost four months ago he sanctioned the sale of his most technically gifted player, Philippe Coutinho, who had been outstanding in the first half of the season and did not replace him like for like, causing supporters and pundits to question everything from his judgment to his sanity. Instead he recruited a centre-back in Virgil van Dijk and trusted his instinct that the team would improve as a consequence. Continue reading...

We are all connected, and our relationships to one another give us strength, joy, and a shared identity. 2018 marks the 33rd year of the GREECE Regional Chamber's annual Community Awards Gala, a celebration of a very broad range of people and organizations whose excellence and generosity have ...

Recep Tayyip Erdogan's decision to call for snap elections on June 24 is of direct consequence to GREECE, more than at any other time, as the Turkish president increasingly espouses a nationalist stance and invests in the political gains this brings him. His convergence with the far-right Nationalist ...

Responding to a Greek court ruling that annuls a government decision to force asylum-seekers arriving in Greece since the EU-Turkey deal to remain on the Greek islands, Amnesty International’s migration researcher Irem Ar: “Forcing asylum-seekers to ...

ΑΘΗΝΑ (Reuters) - Greece on Thursday accepted a 535 million euro (466.31 million pounds) offer by a consortium led by Italy’s Snam (SRG.MI) for a majority stake in gas grid operator DESFA, its privatisation agency said. Greece relaunched the sale of ...

Workers at Greek trains and Proastiakos have announced a work stoppage scheduled on Thursday, April 26th 2018. The work stoppage will take place between 11:00 a.m.and 03:00p.m. The strike will affect operation of Athens Metro from and to Athens Airport, as the Metro Line operates under Proastiakos management from station to/from

With overwhelming majority the European Parliament approved in favor a resolution calling on Turkey to swiftly complete the judicial process and release the two Greek soldiers in high security prison of Edirne since March 1st and without raised charges. 607 out of a total 632 present MEPs voted in favor of the resolution, 7 against … The post With overwhelming majority MEPs urge Turkey for swift release of Greek soldiers appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

As a struggling actress in Hollywood in the early 1990s, Nia Vardalos had been told to hide the fact that she was of Greek heritage, or to pretend that she was Italian, in order to get film roles. Frustrated, she decided to write her own movie to star in ...

Less than two months into their probe of Novartis bribery allegations in Greece, lawmakers there decided to hand off the investigation to a special prosecutor. In a case of 10 politicians accused of taking €50 million in bribes between 2010 and ...

In a ruling issued in response to an application filed by the GREEK Council for Refugees, Greece's highest court annulled the GREEK Asylum Service's decision to impose geographical restrictions on asylum-seekers arriving on six GREEK islands (Lesvos, Rhodes, Samos, Kos, Leros and Chios). It will not ...

The 45th Annual GREEK Festival is putting on a one-of-a-kind show on the banks of Bayou St. John to celebrate the New Orleans Tricentennial. The festival will partner with the indigenous people of New Orleans for a re-enactment of Bienville's 1699 voyages on the Mississippi River and Lake ...

WHEN: Through Sept. 9. WHERE: St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park. HOW MUCH: Adults, $20; seniors and students, $18; children 6-12, $8; children 5 and under, free; free on Fridays but tickets are necessary and subject to availability, limited to six tickets per reservation. MORE INFO: metrotix.com or ...

I'll start by saying this is not intended to be some broad takedown of GREEK life at Syracuse. This blog has a long history of being fairly anti-GREEK life, and there's good reasons for that, shaped by a combination of personal experiences, the public information at hand, and the fact that many defenders see ...

A GREEK court on Thursday set free a Turkish coup plotter under judicial control. The asylum request of Suleyman Ozkaynakci, the coup plotter, had been accepted in Dec. 2017 by Independent Asylum Commission, but later the GREEK government raised objection over it. He was released briefly after ...

NEW YORK – The Parish Community of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 302 West 91st Street between West End Ave. and Riverside Drive in Manhattan hosts […] The post Annunciation Greek Heritage and Culture Festival in Manhattan, May 12 appeared first on The National Herald.